DEVICE FOR CRIPPLED

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28556, 9 April 1958, Page 14

DEVICE FOR CRIPPLED

Overseas Interest Grows “The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, April 8. An appliance invented by Mr A. W. Taff, of Napier, to help disabled persons to help themselves is arousing growing interest overseas. It enables crippled persons to carry out many every-day actions by using their feet. Sets of the apparatus are now in use in England, Australia, and the U.S., and a set has been shipped to Helsinki. It will be the first to go to Europe. Mr Taff is a retired English engineer who took an interest in the welfare of disabled servicemen and crippled persons in general. He invented the appliance in 1949 and then turned the patent over to the Disabled Servicemen’s League so it could manufacture and sell the appliance. The appliance enables the user, without the use of his arms, to type, seal a letter in an envelope, turn the pages of a book, clean his teeth, smoke, and eat. Made in Napier The Distaff appliance—so named for “Dis”-abled Servicemen and the inventor. “Taff”—is manufactured in Napier under the inventor’s supervision, and is then sold at cost price, £6O, to any hospital or orthopaedic institution which can use it. Neither Mr Taff nor the league makes any profit from the manufacture of the appliance—they regard it purely as a goodwill gesture to persons who need the appliance. The apparatus first came under the public eye when it was exhibited at the seventh world congress and exhibition of the International Society for the Welfare: of Cripples in London last year Since then the league in Wellington has received many inquiries, and a thick file in its office contains many letters from hospitals in America, England, and Australia, and letters of appreciation from users. Three are in use in England, with inquiries for six more, two in the United States and two in Australia. Three further sets are in use in New Zealand, one by Mr J. Driver, of Dunedin, who. ! having lost the use of his arms through polio, is secretary for a yachting club there and makes a first-class job of typing minutes and correspondence. An inquiry is on hand at present from Dunedin for a lightweight model for a girl whose legs are not strong enough to manage the standard model.